WARMERS AND FILLERS – SOME IDEAS

1. THE “LONELY” STUDENT

LEVEL : PRE-INTERMEDIATE 1 AND ABOVE

TIME : 10 – 15 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• A good student is asked to sit in front of the class with their back to the whiteboard.
• The teacher writes a word on the white board. (for example: computer)
• The rest of the class have to call out related words NOT the actual word or derivations of it!
• The “lonely” student must try to guess the word written on the whiteboard using the related words as clues.
• Maybe do this three or four times with an enthusiastic class.

2. THE ELEPHANT AND THE BUTCHER

LEVEL : PRE-INTERMEDIATE 1 AND ABOVE

TIME : 10 – 15 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• The teacher writes the first line of a story on the whiteboard. (for example: an elephant went into a butcher’s shop)
• Ask a good student to continue the story with another sentence.
• The student MUST NOT write anything down.
• Continue around the class until everyone has contributed with a sentence.
• Start the story again, this time encouraging the students to link their sentence with the previous one using “linking words” (for example: but, so, because, and, etc.)

NOTE : Before students give their own sentence they must repeat the previous student’s sentence.

3. HOW MANY WORDS ARE THESE?

LEVEL : ALL LEVELS

TIME : 15 – 20 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• The teacher writes a “long” word on the whiteboard. (for example: grandparents, consultations, extraordinary etc.)
• Students are given a time limit depending on class size and level to find as many hidden words as possible from the letters of the “long” word.
• Tell them there are about 45 new words “hidden” within the main word on the whiteboard.
• After the time limit ask students to read out their new words and write them up on the whiteboard.
• There is no need to write the same word twice if different students have the same word.
• Give a total number of new words that they have found at the end of the exercise.

4. THE “YES – NO” CONTEST

LEVEL : PRE-INTERMEDIATE AND ABOVE

TIME : 20 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Divide the class into two teams.
• Each team has to write down as many question as possible which can only be answered with “Yes” or “No”.
• After about 5 or 10 minutes, depending on level and class size, take one student from each group and put them into other team to be a contestant.
• The contestant must answer all questions they are heads.
• They cannot use “Yes” or “No”, or Nod or shake their heads.
• The questions continue for about 1 minute (longer for lower levels).
• A contestant’s turn is finished if they say “Yes” or “No” or Nod or shake their heads and they must return to their original group.
• The next student then moves into the new group and things start all over again.
• Any student who manages to keep going for the duration of allotted time wins a point for their team.
• Try to make sure all students have a go.

NOTE : A version of this game can be found on cassette, (Streamline Departure Unit 24).

It may be a good idea to monitor this activity and task the best student to sit in front of the whole class at the end, and “perform”!

5. TWENTY QUESTIONS

LEVEL : PRE-INTERMEDIATE 2 AND ABOVE

TIME : 20 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Divide the class into teams.
• Each team thinks of various objects: Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.
• Re-mix the groups so that they newly formed groups have members from all of the original teams.
• Each student must then answer questions from their opponents who must try to guess what the object is.
• They have a maximum of 20 questions per student object.
• Any exceptional students can be brought out to the front of the class to demonstrate their skills!

6. WORD SNAKES

LEVEL : ANY LEVELS

TIME : 10 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• As an example the teacher says a word and writes it on the whiteboard.
• Student A must think of another word, the first letter of which must be the same as the last letter of the preceding word.
• Student B then thinks of another word following the same rule, etc.
• For example:

thinK KeY YesterdaY YounG GirL LatE EgG etc

NOTE : For higher levels the same principle could be used to build sentences.

7. WHO AM I?

LEVEL : ELEMENTARY 3 AND ABOVE

TIME : 20 – 25 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Before the class, prepare enough cards, one for each student.
• On the cards write the names of some famous people.
• Tell the students that they are all famous but they have forgotten who they are!
• Stick one name card on the back of each student without them seeing the name written on it.
• The object of the game is to walk around and find out who they are.
• This they do by asking “Yes” or “No” questions to the other students who can see the name stuck on their back.
• When they think they know who they are they ask the teacher. If correct, the name card moves to their front and they continue helping other students by answering their questions.
• If incorrect, they must continue to walk around asking questions until they know who they are.
• The last student to do so looks a right lemon and loses!
• Some famous people (I) :

Celine Dion

Justin Timberlake

Tiger Wood

Lady Diana

Bill Clinton

etc.

• Some possible questions : Was I born in ………. (year/place)?

Am I alive or dead?

Am I a / an (job)?

Can I ………….?

Do I ………..?

Am I from ………….. (place)?

8. SENTENCE RELAY

LEVEL : PRE-INTERMEDIATE 2 AND ABOVE

TIME : 20 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Divide the class into two or three teams.
• The first player of each team goes to the whiteboard and writes a word (any word) on the board.
• The whiteboard marker is then passed to player number two who writes another word either in front of or behind the first word written on the board.
• Every other player in turn must then add a word to the slowly developing sentence.
• The last player of each team must complete the sentence including any punctuation.
• Team members cannot confer. (Optional)
• The number of words in a sentence must equal the number of students in a team.
• For example:

Team A (7 players)

It is very hot today isn’t it ?

Player # 3 4 5 1 2 6 7

Team B (5 players)

I watch television every night.

Player # 3 2 1 4 5

9. PASSWORD

LEVEL : ELEMENTARY 3 AND ABOVE

TIME : 25 – 30 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Divide the class into small groups / teams / families.
• Team A versus Team B etc.
• One member of each team is given a card with a word on it.
• Give the team member with the word a few minutes to think of how he/ she is going to mime / draw etc. a clue related to the key word.
• They must then try to tell their “family” what the word on their card is by using only one-word clues. These can be mimed / drawn on spoken.
• They can only go onto the next clue if their “family” has guesses the previous clue correctly.
• When the “family” has guesses the word correctly they move onto the next student and the next word.
• Set a time limit of about 3 minutes for each word.
• If the word on the card is guessed correctly within the time limit, 2 points.
• If correct but after the time limit 1 point.
• If it isn’t guessed at all pass it over to the opposing “family” who then get one chance to make a guess if it is correct give them 1 point.
• Play it like a quiz show.

10. CHINESE WHISPERS

LEVEL : ANY LEVELS

TIME : 15 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Teacher or student think of a sentences and whispers it to the person next to them, and so on round the class.
• The last person says the sentences aloud and the class compares it to the original starting sentence.
• NOTE :
• For lower levels this works very well with “telling the time”.

1. Teacher whispers a time to the first student.
2. This time is then whispered round the class as described above.
3. Once this has been done successfully, start again by whispering a time to the first student. This time however, 5 minutes is added to or taken away from the time the student hears. And so on round the class.
4. The last student therefore says a time that is different from the original starting whisper.

For example:

Teacher : “5 past 3”

Student 1 : “10 past 3”

Student 2 : “a quarter past 3”

Student 3 : “20 past 3”

Student 4 : “25 past 3” etc.

5. Once this has been done a couple of times, start one whisper from left to right and at the same time, one from to left!
6. An idea may be to have a radio or cassette playing at the same time as the whispering as it makes it more difficult for students to hear what is being said before it’s their turn!

11. FIND SOMEONE WHO…………

LEVEL : ANY LEVELS

TIME : 20 – 30 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• This can be adapted to almost any topic related to relevant work done in class.
• Students are given a list of things which they have to put a name to.
• They can only do this by walking around asking other students questions.
• For example :

If the aim of the lesson were focusing on “likes and dislikes” then students would have to:

FIND SOMEONE WHO ………

1. ………………….. likes school
2. ………………….. hates pop music
3. ………………….. dislikes children
4. ………………….. loves eating etc.
   • When students have completed their questionnaire some feedback can be useful.
   • By asking students to tell you about their friend end they have to use the third person singular, therefore concentrating on the elusive “s” which is very commonly forgotten!

12. LETTER DICTATION

LEVEL : ELEMENTARY AND ABOVE

TIME : 10 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Before the class prepare a few sentences appropriate for the level.
• Dictate one sentence at a time, letter by letter.
• Dictate once only for higher levels.
• Check answers.

NOTE : The dictation can either be forward or backward. For higher levels two sentences can be jumbled up and dictated.

13. NOUGHTS AND CROSSES

LEVEL : ANY LEVELS

TIME : 10 – 20 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION

• Draw a noughts and crosses grid on the board.
• Ask if the students kwon how to play the game and if not GIVE CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS SUITABLE FOR THE LEVEL.
• Divide the class into 2 team.
• Fill the gird with recently taught structures or language points.
• The idea of the game is to exchange the language in the grid for “O’s” and “X’s” and to produce a line of 3 consecutive “O’s” or “X’s”.
• Each team must specify which square they want to try for.
• Ask for a sentence with the appropriate language point in it.
• Is the sentence is correct award a “O” or “X” in the right square.
• If incorrect move quickly to the other team.
• The first team to have 3 “O’s” or “X’s” in a row wins.
• Play again, and again!
• Each new round should become progressively stricter as far as grammatical accuracy is concerned.

NOTE : Some teacher like to have 2 grids on the whiteboard: one with the traditional “O’s” and “X’s” grid, the other with the language points in the gird. That way you only need to play around with the traditional grid and leave the grammar grid intact for students to refer to.

By : syams@kbar